Confidentiality Non-Applicability to Public Danger Disclosure Applied to Doe Testimony
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/72#Confidentiality_Non-Applicability_to_Public_Danger_Disclosure_Applied_to_Doe_Testimony
Properties
Instance of
ConfidentialityNon-ApplicabilitytoPublicDangerDisclosure
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#ConfidentialityNon-ApplicabilitytoPublicDangerDisclosure
Applied to
§7 confidentiality provision as potential bar to Doe's testimony at the public hearing
Balancing with
Client Loyalty
Confidentiality Principle
Concrete expression
Engineer Doe's disclosure to the State Pollution Control Authority that XYZ's discharge will violate established minimum standards does not constitute disclosure of XYZ's 'technical processes or business affairs' within the meaning of §7, because the disclosure serves the public welfare purpose of the ethics code rather than revealing protected confidential information
Confidence
0.93
Importance
high
Interpretation
The confidentiality provision of §7 does not shield the client from disclosure of public safety violations to proper authorities; advising the authority of apparent danger to the public interest falls outside the protected category of technical processes or business affairs
Invoked by
Engineer Doe Public Interest Environmental Witness Engineer
Tension resolution
Confidentiality does not apply because the disclosure of public danger to proper authorities is categorically distinct from disclosure of protected business or technical information
Source Evidence
Source text
Section 7 of the code does not give us pause because the action of the engineer in advising proper authority of the apparent danger to the public interest will not in this case be disclosing the technical processes or business affairs of the client.
Text references
Section 7 of the code does not give us pause because the action of the engineer in advising proper authority of the apparent danger to the public interest will not in this case be disclosing the technical processes or business affairs of the client.
Section 7-'The Engineer will not disclose confidential information concerning the business affairs or technical processes of any present or former client or employer without his consent.'
TTL
@prefix case72: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/72#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case72:Confidentiality_Non-Applicability_to_Public_Danger_Disclosure_Applied_to_Doe_Testimony a proeth:ConfidentialityNon-ApplicabilitytoPublicDangerDisclosure,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Confidentiality Non-Applicability to Public Danger Disclosure Applied to Doe Testimony" ;
proeth:appliedto "§7 confidentiality provision as potential bar to Doe's testimony at the public hearing" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Client Loyalty",
"Confidentiality Principle" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer Doe's disclosure to the State Pollution Control Authority that XYZ's discharge will violate established minimum standards does not constitute disclosure of XYZ's 'technical processes or business affairs' within the meaning of §7, because the disclosure serves the public welfare purpose of the ethics code rather than revealing protected confidential information" ;
proeth:confidence "0.93" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "72" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-02-26T12:05:13.603514+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "72" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-02-26T12:05:13.603514+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "The confidentiality provision of §7 does not shield the client from disclosure of public safety violations to proper authorities; advising the authority of apparent danger to the public interest falls outside the protected category of technical processes or business affairs" ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer Doe Public Interest Environmental Witness Engineer" ;
proeth:principleclass "Confidentiality Non-Applicability to Public Danger Disclosure" ;
proeth:sourcetext "Section 7 of the code does not give us pause because the action of the engineer in advising proper authority of the apparent danger to the public interest will not in this case be disclosing the technical processes or business affairs of the client." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "Confidentiality does not apply because the disclosure of public danger to proper authorities is categorically distinct from disclosure of protected business or technical information" ;
proeth:textreferences "Section 7 of the code does not give us pause because the action of the engineer in advising proper authority of the apparent danger to the public interest will not in this case be disclosing the technical processes or business affairs of the client.",
"Section 7-'The Engineer will not disclose confidential information concerning the business affairs or technical processes of any present or former client or employer without his consent.'" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 72 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-02-26T12:15:43.076230"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 72 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
72
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-02-26T12:05:13.603514+00:00
First case
72
Generated
2026-02-26T12:05:13.603514+00:00
Attributed to
Case 72 Extraction
Generated
2026-02-26T12:15:43.076230
Generated by
ProEthica Case 72 Extraction